Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday ruled out the possibility of his eldest son Ahmed succeeding him, saying the country's constitution did not allow the transfer of hereditary power.

"Ahmed is a citizen like anyone else. Hereditary power is out of the question in Yemen," Saleh told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

"We have a constitution that sets the rules for the transition of power, a process which passes through the ballot box and reflects the wish of the voters," said Saleh, whose current five-year mandate as president runs out in 2004.

Saleh was responding to questions asking whether Yemen would go down the same road as Syria, whose late president Hafez Assad was succeeded by his son Bashar.

Lieutenant-colonel Ahmad Ali Abdullah Saleh, 31, who commands Yemen's special forces, made his entry into official circles in 1997 when he was elected to parliament - DUBAI (AFP)